Huntington Beach, Day 3

My little nuclear family of four's first introduction to the beach I spent the first 27 years of my life going to.

It was weird...the little beach and farming town I grew up in is now a crazy-huge tourist destination.....

...with really big hotels (like the one behind Aunt Jill).

...but some things are still the same....

...like the HB lifeguard boat patrolling the waters...

(looking for sharks?)

...and the little sand crabs....

...and the HB Pier....

...and the Junior Lifeguard program I spent pretty much every summer of my youth doing....

...and surfers surfing really big waves....

Main Street.

The street I grew up on.

What a great day :)

Huntington Beach, Day 2---BRITT!!!

My very best friend in the whole world I have known for pretty much my entire life.

We have been through so much together we could probably write a pretty entertaining book.

But for the past 22 years we have been physically separated by 3000ish miles so our friendship has existed through emails, phone calls, and texting.

Until last week.

In the photo above we were 21 

(I know because that's when I had braces ;)

In this photo above we're not 21.

Obviously.

Our faces (and other parts of our bodies) may have changed just a bit, but our friendship hasn't.  

Four days with Britt was not enough to catch us up on 22 years of not-togetherness.

But it was a great start!

And it will have to do until we hit Hawaii this Spring :)

Huntington Beach, Day 1

The whooooooole family traveled to our hometown of Huntington Beach (California) to finally place the last half of our mother's ashes in Bill and Liz'z father's grave.  

While the reason for the trip was sad, the trip itself was awesome :)

And I'm pretty sure we are all in agreement on this.

Our little family of four arrived in CA first so we headed to Chinatown for dinner.

The meal we had here was the best Chinese food I have ever had....ever.  

I want to go back :)